5 Minutes with ...
KRIS MEEKE
The Minis are getting ready for their
assault on the world championship in the
scond half of the 2011 season. Learning
from the experiences of independent
Mini John Cooper Works competitors
since Portugal in March, then the debut
appearance of the official team cars
in Sardinia in early May, the Prodrive
engineers have been working hard to
get their cars ready for the five world
championship rallies planned for the rest
of the year.
Northern Irelander and former IRC
champion Kris Meeke knows that
anything his fellow Ulsterman Paddy
Hopkirk achieved in Minis 40 years ago is
a minimum of what is expected of him in
the coming months.
Coming up for the team this year are
two world championship gravel events
(Finland and Britain) and three on
asphalt – German, France and Spain. Kris
is looking forward to the hard and the
soft stuff – he spoke to MARTIN HOLMES
GPWEEK: where are you at in terms of
your preparations for the second par t of
the year?
KRIS MEEKE: We had our first development
asphalt test in early June in Sanremo on a
variety of roads and we were very happy
and enthusiastic.
We’re past the point where we are hitting
any unexpected gremlins on tests. We have
a proper running car now which is fully up
to spec so we can get very quickly on the
tests with the hard work of establishing
setups and so on.
This latest test was very productive and I
have to say that it felt very good, although
again when you are testing by yourself a
very good feeling doesn’t necessarily mean
you are fast enough. We won’t know that
until we get to Germany and find out where
we are on asphalt.
You have already tasted competition on
gravel in Portugal. How is life in the fast
sweeping gravel roads in Finland going
to be?
We’re going to do a Finland test and
also Rally Estonia a couple of weeks before,
so that will all be a good test for me and
for the car but it is starting to get a bit
frustrating. I only managed to get in three
stages on the rally in Sardinia and, by the
time Finland comes round, that will mean
three competitive stages in 10 months!
To say I’m feeling rally-rusty is a bit of an
understatement.
So being on a real rally in Estonia will be
good warm-up for me. The fact that the
Friday of Finland (the first full day) is new
territory for everyone (because the route
ventures this time down to Lahti before
returning to Jyvaskyla) is a bit of a help. On
the more traditional stages I will personally
be at a big disadvantage compared with
Dani, even though I’ve done the rally in the
Juniors – but World Rally Cars are a different
experience. The speeds are higher and you
really need to know the roads very well. The
Friday stages can be interesting for me.
Looking at the rallies you’ve got coming
up this year, which is going to be the one
that favours you most?
I don’t know. I’m keen for every rally
to come. The sensations in Finland are
spectacular but I’ve also gone very well in
Germany in the past. Alsace (France) will
be a relatively new rally for me though I
competed there in a French championship
rally in 2005 and tested quite a lot in that
region with Citroen, but I think they are
little known stages for everyone.
Obviously I’ve done Catalunya as well
a few times and Rally GB is of course my
home rally. I don’t have any particular
favourite and, as I say, we’re just eager to
find out more and more about the car and
try and improve it as much as possible.
What plans have been made for 2012?
We’re going through them at the minute.
That is why we’re doing the selected events
this year in preparation for 2012, to learn
about the car.
Prodrive have been out of the world
championship for three years and they
need to build the team back up, to build
the infrastructure back up to the level it
needs to be at. That takes a bit of time – it
doesn’t happen overnight.
We’re going through all the motions at
the minute but its fantastic to be in the
position to have six WRC rallies this year to
learn everything and to prepare ourselves
as well as possible for next year. From my
point of view I’m contracted to the team for
2012 and 13.
How is your teammate Dani Sordo
settling in the team?
Dani is getting more and more
comfortable within the team. Obviously
it was a big culture shock for him, having
only ever driven for Citroen in the world
championship for five years. To step out of
that and come to a foreign team and a new
car and be involved in its development is
all new to him, because at Citroen all the
development was done in the background,
behind the scenes with their own test drivers.
Mini has given him a chance for him to
have his own input. I think he is slowly
integrating within the team and at our
last proper tarmac test he came away
very excited. If Dani, who is renowned as a
tarmac specialist with his 17 podiums on
tarmac and the only driver really to take
a fight to Loeb over the last five seasons,
comes away excited from a tarmac test
it can only be good or all of us. So we’re
encouraged but as I said we have to
temper that until we get to a rally and see
ultimately what speed we have.
On a person-to-person basis, how do you
relate to Dani?
We were teammates back in 2005 in the
Junior championship so we know each
other very well and we get on very well.
We’re guys of similar age at similar stages
in our lives and we both enjoy driving cars
and for sure it is a good relationship.
Ultimately when we’re in the rally cars
it is very much a team sport, but we are
competing in separate cars so it is an
individual sport as well and we are both
trying to beat each other. There is no
animosity – we are both very good team-
mates behind the scenes.
Finland can’t come soon enough. Coming
up in the meanwhile we are going to
Estonia, Finland and Germany, so lots of
kilometres to come, but you can’t beat
actually competing. I can’t wait to get to
Finland for the real thing.
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